The invention relates to a mechanism for locking a door of an electric household appliance, e.g. an electric clothes-dryer, the mechanism being provided with a housing, a slider that is provided with a labyrinth to define direction of a displacement of the slider at a single thrust on the slider, a latch, which is fastened to the door of the electric household appliance and thrusts the slider when closing and opening the door of the electric household appliance and whose head is snapped by a tooth of a slider jaw when closing the door of the electric household appliance, and with a spring, said slider being translatory movable in the housing in direction against the force of the spring during closing the door of the electric household appliance and in direction of the force of the spring during opening the door of the electric household appliance and said housing being provided with a cam lobe that lifts the slider jaw and closes it hereby, when the latch thrusts the slider in the direction against the force of the spring.
There is known an applicant's mechanism for locking a door of an electric household appliance having push-push and push-pull functions as described above (FIGS. 1, 2a and 2b).
The mechanism is provided with a housing 1′, a slider 2′ that is provided with a labyrinth defining direction of displacement of the slider 2′ at a single thrust on the slider 2′, a latch 3 that is fastened to the door of the electric household appliance and thrusts a body 22 of the slider 2′ when closing and opening the door of the electric household appliance and whose head 31 is snapped by a tooth 231 of a slider jaw 23′ when closing the door of the electric household appliance, and with a spring 4. The slider jaw 23′ is embodied in one piece together with the slider body 22 of a plastic material, e.g. polypropylene.
The slider 2′ is translatory movable in the housing 1′ by means of an assembly of a guiding groove 21 and a guiding cam 11 in the direction against the force of the spring 4 during closing the door of the electric household appliance and in the direction of the force of the spring 4 during opening the door of the electric household appliance.
The housing 1′ is provided with a cam lobe 12 lifting the slider jaw 23′ against the force of elasticity of a junction area 22-23′ between the slider body 22 and the slider jaw 23′ from the opened position, and closes it, when the latch 3 thrusts the slider 2′ in direction against the force of the spring 4. Now the tooth 231 snaps the latch head 31 blocking hereby the latch 3 from being pulled out at a moderate force, however, when needed the door opening is possible with a slightly greater pulling-out force (push-pull).
The door is opened by a repeated thrust of the latch 3 on the slider 2′ (push-push) in order to cause a jump-over in the labyrinth. Then the spring 4 thrusts the slider 2′ in the outwards direction. Hereby the force of elasticity of the junction area 22-23′ between the slider body 22 and the slider jaw 23′ opens the slider jaw 23′.
The material of the slider 2′ and that of the jaw 23′ as well does not guarantee a permanently constant elasticity of the junction area 22-23′. Due to elevated temperature in a household appliance of the described type, said elasticity decreases faster than it would otherwise. The locking mechanism is usually foreseen for temperatures in a range from 0° C. to 70° C.
After used for a longer period of time, the latch 3 tends to stuck when the door is opened. When plastic deformation of the junction area 22-23′ between the slider body 22 and the slider jaw 23′ is yet more considerable, the latch 3 thrusts the slider 2′ upon closing the door so that jump-over occurs in the labyrinth, but the tooth 231 of the slider jaw 23′ fails to snap the latch head 31. The door of an electric household appliance remains unlocked.
The technical problem of the invention is how to provide for fastening of a slider jaw to a slider body and for a cooperation of a slider jaw with other parts of the mechanism for locking a door of an electric household appliance, in order that a restoring torque for opening the slider jaw will be provided by a force, which is not elasticity force of a junction area between the slider body and the slider jaw.
Said technical problem is solved by a mechanism of the invention for locking a door of an electric household appliance having the features cited in the characterizing portion of the first claim and the variants of the embodiment being characterized by the features of the dependent claims.
The mechanism, as improved by the invention, for locking an door of the electric household appliance distinguishes itself in that it is not susceptible to plastic deformation of the junction area between the slider body and the slider jaw. The slider body and the slider jaw are two separate parts being mutually form-locked, so both can be made of the same material, but preferably of two different materials.